Thus Jena is praised by them, because they can enter the class rooms in a morning-gown and slippers,--and Gottingen because they are there treated with more gentlemanly respect.'-Hodgskin, vol. ii. p. 270.

Our Oxford and Cambridge men will smile at the peculiar circumstance which is here said to give popularity to Jena; but if those who are appointed to give lectures be really subject to such thraldom, it is not surprizing that they should talk vaguely of change, as they are all said to do. There is another cause, however, which operates to their disadvantage. The market for professors has been of late years much overstocked in Germany, and they form a body very disproportionate to the number of students. Separated too as they are from the higher classes by the aristocratic feelings of the nobility, their situation is totally distinct from that of the literary men in any other country; and unless another Catharine should arise and establish universities in the steppes of Russia, there seems to be no chance of an outlet of sufficient dignity and importance for that superabundance of professorial knowledge with which Germany is deluged. We must not however attribute to this class a greater share in fomenting the evil than they fairly deserve; nor be understood to include in one sweeping clause of reprobation all that has been written by the supporters of this cause. A general restlessness pervades the whole of the German states, and it will be some time before the waves subside which the storm of war has raised in that quarter. The princes complain of their people, and the people of their princes; and as both perhaps are right to a certain extent, to both should concession and calmness be recommended. We firmly believe that there is no body of rulers more disposed to consider the welfare of their subjects, and to govern the countries under their sway with moderation and equity, than the potentates of Germany in their different degrees; but they are not, for the most part, very happy in the choice of those to whom the management of state affairs is entrusted, (who are frequently foreigners equally ignorant and regardless of the interests committed to their charge,)-they have strong notions of the supremacy of rank, which have been handed down to them from the days of feudal dominion; and they are not very sagacious in discovering the signs of the times, or in adapting their mode of government to the improved state of society in every quarter of the globe. In times like these, the personal character of the sovereign will not always serve to arrest the evil in its progress-it may delay, but not prevent it:-and when the Radical writer before us inquires whether the present aspect of things in Germany does not resemble that which preceded the French Revolution ? it may not be amiss to remind those whom it concerns, that the virtues of Louis XVI. did not save his crown from

6

from being trampled in the dust, nor his people from being exposed to all the horrors of anarchy.

But although the silent operation of time may pretty well account for the change in the public mind, yet it is, in a great degree, to the length and the calamities of the late war, and to the peculiar circumstances which attended its close, that we must attribute the unusual ardour for reform now manifest amongst the natives of that country.-The danger to which every state in Germany was successively exposed, and the vicissitudes to which all have been equally subject, have had a very perceptible effect in producing an amalgamation (if we may so call it) of the different classes of society there, amongst which, until lately, there was no visible approximation.

'Misery acquaints a man with strange bed-fellows,'-and it is not easy, nor is it creditable, after the storm has subsided, to shake off those who have been our companions and assistants in weathering its fury. Hence a new order of things is gradually taking place, and that scale of different ranks is beginning to be introduced in Germany which has been known in this country for at least two centuries. The nobles of the land, unless gifted with higher acquirements than their rude predecessors, have ceased to create awe by their appearance; their feudal privileges are rapidly disappearing, and can seldom now be legally enforced; whilst on their decline, and on the diminution of their possessions and consequence, a middle class in society is by degrees coming forward, from which the superior offices of the state can now be advantageously filled.

The practice of subdividing property among the children of a family, which prevails in some of the German provinces,-and the Meyer Ordinance, which forbids the landed proprietor from concentrating his possessions by uniting his farms, or from increasing his income by raising his rents, all operate with united force against the continuance or the formation of a powerful aristocracy; and considering, as we do, the respectability and affluence of the nobility to be quite essential to the strength and prosperity of a country, we hope to see these impediments to the free disposal of property removed.-We do not doubt that in France it will be found necessary to alter the law of inheritance in this respect, as well as in Russia. It is only in in a very early stage of civilization that such regulations can be beneficial. But whilst, from these combined circumstances, the owners of the land have lost in their importance, the great commercial interests of the country have not remained uninjured. The Hans towns have suffered severely from the shackles imposed on their trade by the despotic and absurd decrees of Buonaparte. These,

at

at first sight, would appear to be favourable to German industry, by forcing the inhabitants to rely upon their own resources; but they only tended in the end to distress the people by obliging them to pay exorbitant prices for the produce of our colonies. Some few of the manufactures of the country, it is true, obtained during the war an extensive sale, and have, even since the peace, occasionally driven ours from the market; the articles, however, as far as we know, have been for the most part of little importance in the commercial scale. In regard to all those manufactured goods which are material in the balance of trade, our superiority is still as unrivalled as ever; and we are convinced that the greater the competition of our neighbours, and the more open the door is thrown to the commerce of all other nations, the more conspicuous will be found the pre-eminence of our work

men.

As far as we can discover, the causes which mainly operate against the commerce of Germany, and prevent its attaining a healthy flow and circulation, appear to be, the discredit which the higher classes attach to its pursuit, the frequency of royal monopolies, and the number of guilds, or exclusive companies to which every trade, however trivial, is confined.-Such combinations were doubtless originally of use for the protection of individuals who pursued the same calling-but they have long ceased to be effectual; and have accordingly been abolished in many of the German states amongst others in Bavaria, and the whole of the Prussian territories. We see not why they should not be abo lished in all. The numerous tolls and examinations to which goods are subjected in their transit through the territories of dif ferent princes, conduce perhaps still more effectually to check the commercial prosperity of Germany.

Germany has been in these points 'peculiarly unfortunate. It has been divided into many petty governments, each of which has been anxious to raise a revenue by all manner of exactions, and to acquire superiority by impeding the rise of others. Each has endeavoured to check the prosperity of its neighbour; and thus, there is not and never has been a free intercourse between all parts of Germany Neither roads nor rivers are free; commerce is free only in a few square miles ; and the merchants of Germany have always wanted an extensive home market, and have rarely been able to engage in foreign trade, because they could never acquire capital enough to live on it till the returns came from abroad. It would be a much greater benefit to the Germans to have a free intercourse with all parts of their own country, than to restrict the importation of English goods. Their interest would be more promoted by the abolition of tolls and border custom-houses than by the utter exclusion of foreigners from their markets. Possessing a fine country adorned with the noblest rivers of Europe, speaking the

same

same language, and forming, in fact, but one people, they ought to have a most extensive commerce.'-Hodgskin, vol. ii. p. 201.

One of the worst effects of the late war, is the altercation which its pressure has occasioned between princes and people respecting the extent of promises made in the hour of diffcuity and danger: ease soon recants,' we are told, 'vows made in pain and while we allow some weight to the change of feeling which may be produced by an alteration in the tone of the higher powers, we do not doubt that their subjects have much exaggerated the expectations which were originally held out to them, and risen in their pretensions from the hope of concession. Against the King of Prussia, the charge of bad faith has more frequently and more pointedly been brought than the rest, and we refer our readers for His Majesty's statement, on this subject, to a circular letter to Count Bernstorff, in which the several points in dispute are separately noticed. The king certainly intends to give his people a constitution. It will probably not be so democratic in its form as they would desire, and it may be so long delayed as to lose much of the grace and favour which would have accompanied its promulgation at an earlier period; in the mean time discontent pervades his dominions. It is not likely to shew itself in any more formidable shape, for the Germans grumble much without coming to blows; and they have few opportunities of conferring together on their grievances real or imaginary, or of collecting mobs for the purpose of intimidation. The whole system of the Prussian government, although carried on with a strict attention to the principles of justice, is extremely severe in its mode of operation. Their fiscal regulations are, in many respects, arbitrary and vexatious in the extreme, especially where their newly acquired provinces are concerned. These have as yet derived no benefit from the protection of their new masters; and the stop to all the manufactories, which has taken place since the peace, creates a disadvantageous comparison with the times when these establishments flourished under the decrees of Buonaparte. The army, meanwhile, is kept up on a scale very disproportionate to the size of the country. (as may be said indeed of the military force of every state in Germany.) It is true this is done at little cost to the revenue, as the soldiers, for the most part, live at free quarters. The people, however, complain, and not without reason, whilst the want of employment makes malcontents of those whose services are no longer required. The youth of Prussia, after the war was over, had no point to which their ambition could be directed; no occupations for those energies which the course of events had called forth in so unusual a manner. The barrier which still separates different ranks in

Germany

Germany prevented their admission into the higher circles, whilst their superiority in education naturally rendered them unwilling to mix with the low and illiterate. The church, the law, physic, all are, with them, professions of little estimation; and thus a large portion of valuable subjects remain without the support of one party, or sufficient influence to restrain the excesses of the other.

In the company of those men of letters who have assumed the appellation of Liberals, I heard much complaint of the want of a constitution, and many censures on the king, who having, as they say promised one, had not fulfilled his engagement. Among these gentlemen, I heard the acknowledgment cheerfully made that their own government was the most economical in Europe; that it was regular in all its details, faithful to all its engagements, and more desirous of preventing than of punishing crimes. I could never understand from such persons, whose acuteness, talent, and intelligence was considerable, what kind of a constitution they desired, nor what materials they had in the coun try, either for erecting or maintaining such a fabric as they imagined to be necessary. I asked frequently if it was possible to form in Prussia a representative body, which while it asserted its own independence would define and maintain the necessary prerogatives of the monarch. The answers I received were such as convinced me that those who were most vehement for a change had the least contemplated the nature of the one they required.'-Jacob, p. 222.

In general, when popular discontents have been widely dis persed, some ostensible cause of complaint has been assigned for their existence; some grievance, whose removal might tranquillize the storm. The feudal rights, the exactions of the clergy, the weight of taxes, have each, in their turn, been put forward as justifications of the sacred right of insurrection' on the part of the people. In these days, however, the general diffusion of knowledge seems to be among the chief causes of commotion, and as all cannot occupy the front ranks in society, the remedy to be applied is less easily discovered.

Amongst the German reformers, as with their brethren on this side of the water, a great diversity of opinion prevails as to the means of ameliorating their present condition. With some, as with the Carbonari of Italy, the union of their country, under one head, forms the object which they profess to have mostly at heart. Others, with more reasonable, and practicable views, demand a more equal representation of the people: but all, in their eager zeal for fancied amendment, overlook the obvious fact that the progress of improvement is necessarily slow; and forget that when they hold out the English constitution as a model for imitation, they propose to create, as by a magical wand, a fabric which time and experience can alone bring to maturity and perfection. With that confusion of intellect respecting English affairs,

for